


The Waves

by torasame



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-17 15:22:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21056597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torasame/pseuds/torasame
Summary: In which Shisui rationalizes the concept of sacrifice over the three major periods of his life.





	The Waves

**Author's Note:**

> I told myself I needed to get it posted today so here I am, high off chlorine and will probably end up regretting this decision.
> 
> day 4: sacrifice

> _ The waves are crashing down on you and me  
I'll see you on the other side _
> 
> _-The Waves by B∆STILLE_

* * *

There had been a point in time when Shisui Uchiha did not believe in sacrifice.

He'd seen loss and he has lost. He's seen people throw their lives away- he's seen people take them. Kinsmen turned against one another all for their illusion of power. All in the name of  _ sacrifice. _ That's they all said to him. Shisui has stood in a crowd of his clan, gazing over stones with names that blurred together in what all labeled as  _ sacrifice.  _ They said it was all in the name of protecting the village from the impending war, yet people still did not learn- they continued to bicker and greed for power and the cycle would repeat.

He glanced around at the meek faces the clan, wondering what was going on in their minds. Was it worth it? Was it worth killing your family? Your friend? Was it all worth it for this thing you call power? Shisui does not get a response, but the suffocating guilt in his chest that threatened to break his ribs was enough to answer him. His eyes throbbed from a newfound sight- from the power that cursed the Uchiha bloodline. Shisui's stare flitted over a name lost in time and he did not have any tears to spare. He had garnered his own resolve, he was done believing in something as sentimental as sacrifice. His eyes had seen the truth. He believed it. Shisui continued to believe it until he encountered a boy with eyes at reflected his own restless soul. His world tilted on its axis at that moment and everything he once knew melted away.

They both were just children with only a vague impression of what they wished they could do. Children who've seen more of the world than they needed to and carried the great burden of wisdom others label as genius. But that wasn't all that drew him to Itachi- no, it was just this wave of protectiveness that washed over his self centeredness. The world sang  _ redemption  _ when he gazed at the younger Uchiha. They were both travellers in the dark, with only the inklings of a flame in their tiny hands- the only people who had the light but with nowhere to go. Shisui took it upon himself to fan Itachi's flame, to walk beside him and figure their way out of the darkness. He began the fight against his jealousy in an attempt to kill his insecurity to make room for Itachi. But that wasn't enough.

The village could still breach the small room he made to keep Itachi safe- it dragged both of them back into a reality constructed by a generation that refused to listen. They forced them to bury their dreams in a box and bury it in the secluded corners of whatever was left of their hearts. It was all in the name of sacrifice, they had said. Childhood and innocence were small prices to pay for geniuses such as themselves. They told them they were too high up to even be able to call themselves children. They were pawns who stepped up to the playing field, elevated to knighthood. Knights that would soon be sent to battle and inevitably sacrificed in the name of a higher purpose.

He wanted to step in front of Itachi- to cut the strings that tied them to the puppet masters they knew as the village leaders. Shisui wanted to show Itachi the reality he could not see with his standard visual prowess. Shisui wanted to shatter the glass over Itachi's eyes to reveal to him the true motives of the Leaf. He had reached his limit when it struck him.

Shisui hadn't meant to intrude on an ongoing conflict between Fugaku Uchiha and his eldest son. Itachi had told him about his frustrations but never had he seen all the pent up anger cast out into the open. He thought it was about Itachi's assignment to the ANBU until he saw little Sasuke clinging onto the hem of his older brother's shirt with tears threatening to spill from his puffed cheeks. It was then that Shisui's mind went blank at the realization that not only did Fugaku Uchiha had hit Itachi- but Itachi had taken the hit for Sasuke.

Everything he had once known shattered around him.  _ Sacrifice.  _ Itachi  _ sacrificed  _ himself and took the beating for his little brother. The knight strayed from its course on the playing field between Itachi and his father. And it somehow made sense.

Itachi collected Sasuke into his arms and his brother cocooned himself into the crook of Itachi's neck. The younger Uchiha made his way towards him and Shisui suppressed his concern until they were out of the compound- but the expression in Itachi's eyes was forever burned into his memory. It was in the way Itachi looked over at Sasuke with such relief, as though the pain he had experienced only minutes ago faded at the sight of his beloved brother's safety. It all clicked.  _ This _ was what sacrifice really was.  _ This _ was something pure and genuine. There was only an instinct to protect with the only intention being to keep someone safe. There was no ulterior motive to it.

Shisui Uchiha did not believe in sacrifice until Itachi proved him wrong.

There was no other definition than the one Itachi had taught him. Sacrifice was to protect what you hold most dear unconditionally. At that moment, Itachi stared back at him, with eyes he thought were so much like his own but saw something he could not. Shisui reached out to caress Itachi's wounded cheek, brushing the bruised skin gently and feeling the pain against his own. The two knights stood side by side on the chess board, no longer moving according to what was required of them. One of the two decided to protect the other. Now they got to decide their moves- their sacrifices. And there was one thing Shisui finally knew that was for certain- he was going to protect Itachi and everything the younger held dear, no matter what the cost.

"Wait-"

That's all that crossed his mind at that moment. The wind brushed against his back, echoing the depth that awaited him. He thinks of it all and pictures Itachi standing in front of a yellow fading into orange sunset that wrapped him in a warmth he never could. He pretends Itachi had been smiling and he can't help but mirror it.

"Don't stop me Itachi."

_ You were truly the only one I could trust. _

"Shisui!"

There was a time Shisui Uchiha did not believe in sacrifice and yet there he was, allowing the wind to guide him down to meet gravity, entrusting the power he once thought was not worth it to the boy with eyes so much like his own. He hears the water against his ears and the pressure pulling him under. The poison in his veins began to blur his last image of Itachi. One knight was sacrificed to pave the way for a checkmate led by the other. 

Only then had he finally understood sacrifice on his own terms. He sacrificed his life to make way for Itachi's future. He died, free from the constrictions of the chess board, free to sacrifice himself for his fellow knight- Shisui Uchiha finally learnt to believe in sacrifice. He allows the stream to carry him away, he savours the prick of the freezing water before his limbs grew numb and the thoughts of Itachi's future began to lull him out of the gates of the world of the living.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> if writer's block hits me I'm going to commit shisuicide.


End file.
